Both Bonfield and Pettigrew were tipped as early front runners to succeed Steve Holliday in the top spot next summer, and investors raised concern that Pettigrew’s success might prompt the well-regarded Bonfield to resign.
But following the company’s strong financial results released on 10 November Bonfield confirmed his commitment to National Grid, and the company’s commitment to its US business activities.
“I am committed to National Grid in the long-term. I’m not going anywhere and I expect to remain here for a number of years to come,” he told Utility Week.
He also confirmed the company’s commitment to its regulated business activities in the US, where it has recently filed a request for a higher revenue return from its Massachusetts activities.
Bonfield said the company is confident that most of its requested revenue will be recovered from the regulator, and expects to file a further two bids in the coming weeks as part of the price control process.
“It’s difficult to see a set of circumstances in which we would pull out of the US,” Bonfield said, adding that it offers some of the highest growth in the company’s business areas and a strong yield.
Meanwhile, the company is in the early stages of disposing of its gas distribution assets, with the “usual suspects” likely to show interest, Bonfield said.
National Grid intends to sell a stake in the four gas distribution networks rather than separate the assets, Bonfield said, because there are “synergies which benefit customers” in keeping the assets together.
Bonfield said it is “too early to speculate” on who might take a stake in the assets but acknowledged that infrastructure funds, sovereign wealth funds and existing networks companies are all “a possibility”.
“We’d hope for as much competition as possible,” he said.